A microfiche appendix is attached to this application. The appendix, which includes a source code listing of an embodiment relating to the invention, includes 166 pages of source code on 3 microfiche.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
This invention relates to an Internet research tool.
The Internet enables users to access an abundance of information from computer systems throughout the world. Users can find useful information pertinent to their interests by using a browser and a computer-implemented search program known as a search engine. A search engine reads keywords that a user enters into a user interface, locates the keywords in documents published on a computer running a World Wide Web server process or a computer supporting Usenet, and provides access to the documents containing the keywords.
With regards to the World Wide Web, when an interesting World Wide Web site is located, an individual can save data that refers to the location of the site so that he or she may return to the site at a later time. Netscape Navigator(trademark), a product from Netscape Communications Corporation, provides xe2x80x9cbookmarksxe2x80x9d for this purpose. Bookmarks are stored in a personal file and are essentially addresses to sites.
The amount of information retrieved by a search engine can be overwhelming and of minimal quality to the person who initiated the search. Due to the enormous amount of information retrieved and the desire for selectivity, software is available that locates information on the Internet that may have value to a group of individuals.
The present invention features a computer-implemented method for conducting research on the Internet. The method accesses a web page on a computer network and provides a view of the web page on a computer monitor. A portion of the web page can be clipped from the view and automatically saved to a file. The method annotates the file and produces a human-perceptible document from the clipped data. The human-perceptible document is output, for example, to a computer monitor.
A GUI element switches the research mode from a search mode to a collect mode, including distinct sets of tools used in the respective modes. In the collect mode, the method enables a user to gather information from a selected part of a web page, including text, images, audio data, and other multi-media data. The gathered information is saved to a clipping file on disk.
Annotation is included in the same clipping file as the collected information. The annotation is system-provided and automatically saved with the clipping. This system-provided annotation may be bibliographic information (e.g., in a cite format) and may include a document name, an author, a URL, and a date. Additional annotations, composed by a user, can be included in the same file.
Sites are pre-selected to control the quality of the content retrieved. The method presents the pre-selected sites beneath a hierarchy of topics. After a pre-selected site name is selected and prior to accessing the corresponding web site, the method automatically displays a preview of the site so that a user can decide whether to visit the site. A hierarchical path of topics used to reach the pre-selected sites is continuously displayed in the user interface during the search mode.
The method provides an efficient means to conduct research on the Internet for professional or educational purposes, by organizing and presenting topics, locating data on a computer network that is relevant to a selected topic, and collecting selected data found on a remote computer to a local computer medium.
An Internet research tool 102 is capable of collecting only a portion of a web page rather than having to copy an entire web page, recognizing that not all information located by the researcher is valuable or necessary to the research. In the context of the Internet, which makes available enormous amounts of information, an Internet research tool that helps a person focus on only important items of information and gather only pertinent information, thus improving the efficiency of that person as a researcher and providing economic benefits as well, for example, reducing the amount of time spent using resources necessary to use the Internet.